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Dated, June 16, 2007
The
Indian Express
C-DAC
study reveals dismal usability levels of govt. sites;
Maharashtra and Rajasthan best, Haryana and Bihar worst
The
Union Government may project a tech-savvy image to the
world with a slew of portals. But their usability and
effectiveness are below par, according to a study conducted
by the city-based Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC).
The R&D institution that conducted a research on the usability
of eight state government portals based on 40 parameters
saw Maharashtra and Gujarat top with 45-50 per cent
points, followed by Rajasthan.
Haryana,
Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Bihar reveal a lack
of vision and planning when it comes to user-friendliness
and citizen convenience, the study said.
Dr.
Dinesh Katre, head of National
Multimedia Resource Centre, C-DAC, said almost 95
per cent of the eGovernance portals lack user orientation.
While India is multiplying its investment in building
e-government software applications, websites, portals
and kiosks for citizen use, it is necessary to ensure
these are designed with usable interfaces so the benefits
are passed on to citizens," he said.
"It
is often noticed that the user interfaces are complicated,
unstructured, difficult to understand and use."
"For
instance I came across on-line forms indicating space
for signatures and thumb impressions! Most e-government
systems are being built to exactly mimic age-old conventional
procedures," he says, citing the example of the
Karnataka passport office website in which the date
of birth segment does not define the format and is likely
to confuse a first-time user.
A World
Bank study reports that about 35 per cent of e-government
projects in developing countries are total failures,
while only 15 per cent are seen as successes.
"The Centre is
about to launch a Rs.23,000-crore action plan spanning
next five years. The thumb rule says 10 per cent of
the resources should be spent on the process of User
Centered Design which can ensure the end outcome,"
said Katre who also mooted the suggestion of a "usability
audit" whereby there is a periodic performance
and effectiveness measurement of eGovernance systems
like it is being done in the United Kingdom, Australia,
Russia and Dubai.
"There are ways
to make the portals accessible to the illiterate and
the disabled, but it is simply not being done, which
in effect means that in a country with a 400-million
illiterate population and about 20 million disabled
and blind, almost 50 per cent of the population is kept
away from using the e-government services," he
said.
According to him, the
solution lay in adopting a more progressive and encompassing
vision by the government, whereby sites are designed
keeping the psychology and behavior of the end users
in mind.
Some Parameters
of Usability
- Consistency
- Structured Information
- Simple and Understandable Navigation
- Ease of Access
- Readable Texts
- Pleasing Layout
- Local Language Support
By: Sunanda Mehta
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